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DuPage Community Foundation Awards $15,000 Grant to Marianjoy Pediatric Continuing Care Program

Posted on: Friday, 7 August 2009, 14:35 CDT

WHEATON, Ill., Aug. 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The DuPage Community Foundation has awarded Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital a grant in the amount of $15,000. The grant is specifically targeted for Marianjoy's Pediatric Continuing Care Program, which offers group classes for children with physical or developmental disabilities or delays. These classes are used to help children gain and improve their motor, sensory, play, communication and social skills, thereby encouraging success in the classroom and in the community. The grant will help offset the registration fees, especially for underserved children from low income families.

The Marianjoy Pediatric Program treats children with disorders and diseases such as autism, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, brain injury and other diagnoses. The classes that are offered through the Pediatric Continuing Care Program include sensory language and play groups, aquatic therapy, handwriting readiness classes, and groups focused on swallowing and eating disorders. These recurring 8-week classes are designed to help strengthen and reinforce skills gained during individual therapy sessions, while providing coping skills children need to manage larger, more demanding settings, such as school or community participation.

"Our goal is to help a child thrive mentally, emotionally and socially," states Ginny Girten, supervisor of the pediatric program at Marianjoy. "Parents look to Marianjoy for our exceptional physical, occupational and speech therapies. They then enroll their children into our group classes to help practice the hands-on skills, reinforcing what they've already been taught during their one-on-one sessions with our therapists."

Currently Marianjoy underwrites sixty-five percent of the program costs for the families it serves. Though many of the families are able to pay the initial $80 fee for a session, the economy and financial difficulties have discouraged parents from being able to enroll their children in additional programming sessions.

"We are so appreciative of the DuPage Community Foundation's generosity, as it will allow us to help reduce the tuition fees for a child during a one-year period," explains Girten. "Families will be required to pay the first $80 fee for a class session and then will only be required to pay a reduced fee of $25 for the following sessions, with the fund covering the remaining registration fee."

In addition to the 15 classes that are continually offered, Marianjoy also offers support groups for its patients and families. For more information on Marianjoy's Pediatric Program and its pediatric classes, please call 630/909-8542 or visit the Web site at www.Marianjoy.org.

The DuPage Community Foundation, established in 1986, is a publicly-supported 501 (c)(3) organization to which contributions are tax deductible. It was created to benefit the people of DuPage County and receives contributions and bequests into a permanent endowment from individuals, corporations, organizations and foundations wishing to make lasting contributions to the people of DuPage. The earnings on these funds are then used, in accordance with donor wishes, for the Foundation's grantmaking and community leadership activities.

The DuPage Community Foundation seeks to raise the quality of life throughout DuPage County by fostering philanthropy, connecting donors to area needs and building community partnerships. Based on the American virtues of volunteerism and philanthropy, the Foundation fosters a legacy of support for the people of DuPage County by making grants to not-for-profit organizations working in the arts and culture, education, environmental affairs, health, and human services. Since its inception the Foundation has awarded more than $8 million in grants to approximately 400 not-for-profit agencies serving the residents of DuPage County and beyond.

For further information about the Foundation please visit www.dcfdn.org.

SOURCE Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital

Source: PR Newswire

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